Excerpts from Articles

THE Magazine

Ron Pokrasso’s works on wood or paper have many concrete real-world representations or references (trees, human and animal figures, sheet music). But they inhabit or, more precisely, generate their own world, usually tripartite. Most are roughly divided into three image/concept/medium zones, giving them an implicitly narrative feel. This is reinforced by a couple of works that resemble the spine and covers of a book splayed open, face down. Pokrasso combines drawing with other media, in this case printmaking techniques. Some works actually extend into the realm of construction, with assemblaged items such as keyboards extending out of the picture plane. Combined with drawing and collage, this makes for dense visual surfaces.

Marina La Palma

Art-Talk

Ron Pokrasso: Moment of Invention, April 2007

“In a long, narrow Santa Fe studio filled with cluttered work tables, paints, photography, an etching press and a piano posed shyly in the background- a genius is at work. Energetically drilling, hammering or printing, assemblage artist Ron Pokrasso is reminiscent of a 17th century artisan incorporating his love of Rembrandt, American baseball, and music- especially music- into art that sings.”

– Rene Targos

Santa Fean

Prints charming, April 2004

“These days Pokrasso often grafts a Plexiglas artist’s palette splotched with paint into a piece, thus making the process part of the product. A superb printmaker, Pokrasso sometimes creates prints or tears off pieces of an old one to use in his collages. And writing, whether block letters or cursive, is almost always present. “It’s whatever comes to mind at the moment,” he explains. “It might be something I’m thinking or it might be the lyrics to the song on the radio. It’s not about reading it, it’s about the drawing and the feeling.” This sentiment applies to the whole piece, not just the writing; and while the objects and the images do relate to one another, what is really important to Pokrasso is not the subject but the composition.

– Marsha McEuen

The Santa Fe New Mexican

Major-league library, April 2003

Local man constructs miniature ballpark fashioned after the beloved Yankee Stadium of his youth

“Santa Fe got its first major-league baseball stadium Monday. The ballpark may only be 1/40 scale and located in the Capshaw Middle School library, but just seeing it is going to make you hanker for foot-long hot dogs and Cracker Jacks. “It’s our own field of dreams,” said artist Ron Pokrasso, who designed and instigated the project. Pokrasso first became acquainted with a certain corner of the library at Capshaw, fashioned in the style of a three tiered amphitheater, when his own children were attending classes there. To Pokrasso’s eye, it was a perfect place to construct a ballpark fashioned after the beloved Yankee Stadium of his youth. Armed with a $1000 grant from Partners in Education, Pokrasso bought carpet, plywood and paint. He was a man with a mission. “I knew I wanted the students to get involved, but I really didn’t know how to do it, so I roped off a portion of the library, put up some yellow caution tape and began working by myself,” he said. “Little by little, kids began coming in and asking if they could work on it too.” Employing the psychological tool of “build it and they will come,” Pokrasso soon had a cadre of 30 Capshaw students helping him fashion this dream into reality.”

– Denise Kusel

Focus/ Santa Fe

Passion In Action, July 2001

Ron Pokrasso puts his life into his work.

“The shape of the grand piano lid entered his work eight years ago. He had been working with the dome shape in his monotypes, and when he cut away a corner the shape appeared. The piece he was working on was a tribute to John Lennon, the icon who symbolizes Pokrasso’s passion for music, and that outline became a staple element in subsequent work. Recently he began to wish he could incorporate parts of the piano itself into his collages. He no longer found it satisfying to replicate subjects, even though he can draw extremely well. For some time he had been taking imagery from existing sources such as photographs, because his aim was to get his concept across rather than go through the exercise of drawing for its own sake. “Once you’ve got the skills, you can do whatever it takes,” he says. “This is an efficient way to spend more time composing.” Pokrasso took the principle one step further. “Why not put piano parts in the work?”

– Suzanne Deats

Pasatiempo

Out of Context, June 1999

“The thing about Pokrasso is that he’s just, well, brilliant. And just keeps on being brilliant.…He is such an inspired printmaker that his other talents- as a draftsman and a painter and a collagemaker, etc.- seem like icing on the cake.…Pokrasso’s (works) at Deloney Newkirk explore balance. Balance between frenzied paint scribbling and the simple lines of notebook paper. Balance between the regularity of black- and- white on a piece of sheet music and a paint store color sample strip. Balance between the organic charcoal sketch of a tree and the hollow representation of nature on a road map. Yum. Or maybe Om.”

– Hollis Walker

Working through the barrier with fresh ideas, July 1998

Pokrasso shows new assemblages

“Each of Ron Pokrasso’s constructions is the result of a tug-of-war. There’s a comfort and familiarity in repeating ideas that have worked for him before. But as soon as he notices the repetition, he makes a left turn….”Then it becomes boring so I do a new color or add a new compositional element. That allows me to work through the barrier. Then when I’m done I look at it and think maybe it’s not the best piece I’ve ever done but it could be the most important because it was a step in the right direction.”